Bukidnon farmers ask DAR to speed up land award

Bukidnon. INQUIRER FILES

DAVAO CITY—Over a hundred farmers in Don Carlos town of Bukidnon have asked the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to fast-track the process for them to finally own the land that they have been tilling in the past 40 years.

In a statement, the members of the Don Carlos Bukidnon United Farmers Association Inc. (DCBUFAI) said they had the opportunity to meet with DAR officials in Quezon City last Wednesday to air their concerns, including alleged threats to their security.

“On top of our claims, we have been receiving harassment and threats from those who have vested interests in our land. We are appealing to the government to finally award our Cloas (certificates of land ownership award) in honor of those who already passed on. This is for our children who are now the current beneficiary-claimants,” said DCBUFAI president Jovencio Destor Jr.

He said the meeting “concluded with a positive outcome,” as it emphasized the need for closer coordination between the central and regional offices of DAR and for “the security forces to ensure agrarian justice.”

READ: Farmers appeal to Marcos: Pursue agrarian reform

According to a DAR report, DCBUFAI members occupied some 94 hectares of the 2,697-ha estate that the Bukidnon Farms Inc. (BFI) of the late Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. used to control.

No concrete result

Ian Rivera, national coordinator of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), which assisted the farmers, said the DCBUFAI was organized in 1982 and petitioned the government to have the lands they tilled covered by agrarian reform after BFI was sequestered after the government of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was toppled in 1986.

Destor said the discussion during Wednesday’s dialogue centered on revalidating the agrarian reform beneficiaries in Don Carlos.

In 1989, the DAR issued three collective Cloas to 988 farmer-beneficiaries. But after strong opposition from the communities on the list of beneficiaries, the DAR revoked the Cloas in 1998 and ordered a revalidation, which was first done in 2011.

In November 2012, a dialogue was held at the DAR central office where it was agreed finish the DCBUFAI revalidation by February 2013 but the process remained uncompleted until now, Rivera said.

“For more than 33 years, there were only two revalidations done by the agency, and still no concrete results and no formal recognition of their rights to the land,” he added. —RYAN D. ROSAURO